Zombie hordes?

[Great Beyond]

So this weekend I get to do my annual Halloween game, and I was going to unleash a zombie apocalypse upon my Heros (complete with an out so I don't actually end the world at the end of the game). I've got a couple of ideas for zombies, but I was wondering if anyone else had some undead ghouls in their portfolios they'd be willing to share, so I can mix and match ideas.

 

I was hoping to work out the numbers for a couple of tiers of zombies, the Stormtrooper zombies that get knocked down pretty easy, the "Hey that was kind of tough" zombie, and the "Holy crap, everyone get over here and help!" zombie.

 

And then of course the Boss zombie at the end of the game - but he's special beastie all by himself.

[map_fl]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

You peaked my curiosity, What will the "out" be? How will you have a Zombie Apocalypse and then end it. Sounds like a good story.

 

Not sure about power levels for your game. Here are soem ideas to toughen or soften your zombies.

 

Head shots only. Your zombies can only be killed by called head shots. I am sure you can write this up in game terms, but why bother? Just say anyone doing x points of body to the head (minus defenses) kills the zombie.

 

Slow or fast? Fast zombies are more difficult, slow Zombies are a classic. (Slow zombie guy myself).

 

Are you actually looking for stats? I might have some.

[Spence]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

yes yes

 

more info please

[Dr Archeville]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

[plug] I discussed various types of zombies in The (First) Journal of Franklin von Mookenstein, as well as lots of other Undead critters. [/plug]

[Doc Samson]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

I ran a post-ZA world in my Exiles-style game recently. To repair the dimension they had to: rescue the last survivors of humanity (who were hiding in the frozen north where normal zombies would freeze before they got there), recover the vaccine, and then destroy the source of the infection. It was kind of a Marvel Zombies meets Resident Evil style story arc.

 

Normal zombies were built as automatons with max human stats (Dawn of the Dead style, strong and fast). Super Zombies were built as Supers with the Automaton Powers. They both could be one-shotted with a successful called shot to the head (not easy on the super zombies!). The source of the infection was that world's "Superman" type who became infected after his arch-enemy sent him to another dimension.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

Well, my 'out' comes in two phases:

 

Phase one is the old comics stand-by: the parallel universe. Just next door to the current game dimension, the zombie apocalypse is 6-8 months along, and the world is pretty much at the Day/Land of the Dead stage, where there is more undead than living. A band of survivors (about 200/300 or so) have managed to gather at the Institute for Very Advance Science and gotten into the D-Tech labs, creating a portal to the game world where they can evacuate to.

 

I was figuring three sets of survivors. Set 1 opens a portal and comes over (attracting the attention of the heroes who would hopefully come to investigate the proceedings), portal two sends over another batch of survivors - but when portal three opens, that lab on the other side is awash with zombies and survivors in a panic. Time to start in 12. . . .

 

Of course the portal has to be shut down or the zombie hordes will get loose in the game world. The problem is - the controls are over there, on the Zombie World side of the gate. Shut the portal down and whoever does it gets stuck on Zombie World (and come on, tell me the players wont jump to be heroic and do that).

 

This gives me the chance to set some fun at the end of the world without actually ending it. Also, along the way they'll figure out (hopefully) the nature of the zombification. I was inspired by this (warning, occasionally salty language in the link) - one of the players is a Super Genius and works with nano-technology in hopes of someday giving it to NASA and teraforming Mars or something. Well the Zombie World Super Genius accidentally created zombie nano-bots and they got loose. In short - the Super Genius accidentally ended the world (talk about an angst moment, huh?)

 

(Even better angst moment - when I use the zombified versions of the players against them. Everyone should be easy enough to deal with, other than the Zombiefied Tank - who will be a bear to take out)

 

But that gives me phase two of the 'out' - if she created it (well, Zombie World her did), then coming up with an "off switch" should be easy enough. The Zombiefication is too far advanced on Zombie World to reverse, but when the players get back and find outbreaks on their world (some people who were infected slipped through the portal and the disease started spreading at home), the process should be able to be reversed. That gives them a glorious chance to Save the World!

 

Whew.

 

Anyway, we're sporting about 400 points, with power levels topping out at about 80 active points or so - we're good, but not World Class yet. And yeah - any stats you care to let me shamlessly steal from would be dandy.

[Great Beyond]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

Oh - so far I've got this for standard zombie powers:

 

1) Bite of the undead: Major Transform 10d6 (People into Zombies, T'aint no cure), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Difficult To Dispel (x8 Active Points; +3/4), Continuous (+1) (487 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, Change may take up to 6 hours; -3 1/2), No Range (-1/2), Requires a sucessful bite (-1/2)

 

2) Zombifaction: Life Support (Eating: Character does not eat; Longevity: Immortal; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing; Sleeping: Character does not sleep)

and

 

3) Bite!: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 3d6 (3 1/2d6 w/STR)

Of course I'm still in the process of refining things, so these numbers may change up or down some. But that'll pretty much what every zombie comes with.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

Well, Will Mistretta created a very good free online HERO sourcebook for zombie survival games in the vein of George Romero's films, Twilight of the Dead. It gives stats for basic zombies and game mechanics for zombie abilities, very similar to what you suggest for your zombies. I highly recommend it.

 

It feels a little self-serving for me to suggest this, but you might get some use from an article I wrote for Digital Hero #44.

That issue brings back the classic Champions villain Profesor Muerte, this time as an undead being whose schtick is the augmentation of the undead through a blend of technology and sorcery. He could certainly be a candidate for the "super genius" who created the zombie plague, and might very well have done so deliberately.

 

I wrote up several servant creatures for Muerte in the article, undead which he has boosted to superheroic power levels, including zombies, ghouls, a mummy and a vampire. They have some pretty atypical powers compared to standard versions of these creatures. For example, the zombies are acrobatic super-leapers who fire energy weapons from their hands.

 

[Metaphysician]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

Oh - so far I've got this for standard zombie powers:

 

1) Bite of the undead: Major Transform 10d6 (People into Zombies, T'aint no cure), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Difficult To Dispel (x8 Active Points; +3/4), Continuous (+1) (487 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, Change may take up to 6 hours; -3 1/2), No Range (-1/2), Requires a sucessful bite (-1/2)

 

2) Zombifaction: Life Support (Eating: Character does not eat; Longevity: Immortal; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing; Sleeping: Character does not sleep)

and

 

3) Bite!: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 3d6 (3 1/2d6 w/STR)

Of course I'm still in the process of refining things, so these numbers may change up or down some. But that'll pretty much what every zombie comes with.

 

Seems a little much. Basically, if any PC gets hit in melee *ever*, they are screwed. Also, these zombies pretty much kill an order human with a single attack.

 

At the very least, I'd suggest changing the Transform limit to "Bite attack must do Body damage", and tone down the Bite attack. If you want to maintain the threat of zombie-fication, include some "super zombies" that have buffer attacks or nastier infection vectors, ala STaST.

[Corven_Ren]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

From CSI:New York this past Wed

 

"I hate Zombies" -Mac Taylor

"I know they spoil all the fun"- Stella Bonasera

[Spence]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

Oh - so far I've got this for standard zombie powers:

 

1) Bite of the undead: Major Transform 10d6 (People into Zombies, T'aint no cure), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Difficult To Dispel (x8 Active Points; +3/4), Continuous (+1) (487 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, Change may take up to 6 hours; -3 1/2), No Range (-1/2), Requires a sucessful bite (-1/2)

 

2) Zombifaction: Life Support (Eating: Character does not eat; Longevity: Immortal; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing; Sleeping: Character does not sleep)

and

 

3) Bite!: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 3d6 (3 1/2d6 w/STR)

Of course I'm still in the process of refining things, so these numbers may change up or down some. But that'll pretty much what every zombie comes with.

 

Seems a little much. Basically, if any PC gets hit in melee *ever*, they are screwed. Also, these zombies pretty much kill an order human with a single attack.

 

At the very least, I'd suggest changing the Transform limit to "Bite attack must do Body damage", and tone down the Bite attack. If you want to maintain the threat of zombie-fication, include some "super zombies" that have buffer attacks or nastier infection vectors, ala STaST.

 

 

I have to say I agree. While a straight zombie movie/book can go with that severe a "Bite of the Undead", an RPG should at least give the illusion the PC's can survive. Unless the zombies are solitary, a horde will guarantee bites on any normal group of PC's in the course of an average encounter.

 

I would suggest either Metaphysician's suggestion or make it curable for a period of time, and then be incurable should they fail to meet the timeline.

 

But all in all, if the PC's are within the normal range and not superbeings, a 3D6KA with an irreversible transform is a very heavy hit.

[ghost-angel]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

There's good advice for running a Zombie-ocalypse in Post-Apocalyptic Hero.

 

And of course, then you can run a full on PAH game as the Hero's get to a lab on the other side of the world to get home . . .

[Gadodel]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

Oh - so far I've got this for standard zombie powers:

 

1) Bite of the undead: Major Transform 10d6 (People into Zombies, T'aint no cure), Uncontrolled (+1/2), Difficult To Dispel (x8 Active Points; +3/4), Continuous (+1) (487 Active Points); Extra Time (6 Hours, Change may take up to 6 hours; -3 1/2), No Range (-1/2), Requires a sucessful bite (-1/2)

 

2) Zombifaction: Life Support (Eating: Character does not eat; Longevity: Immortal; Safe in High Pressure; Safe in High Radiation; Safe in Intense Cold; Safe in Intense Heat; Safe in Low Pressure/Vacuum; Self-Contained Breathing; Sleeping: Character does not sleep)

and

 

3) Bite!: Killing Attack - Hand-To-Hand 3d6 (3 1/2d6 w/STR)

Of course I'm still in the process of refining things, so these numbers may change up or down some. But that'll pretty much what every zombie comes with.

 

Ouch! I think that I would consider making Zombies dumb and slow. If they actually hit their target, it's a fluke-assuming the target is a superbeing of some sort.

[AmadanNaBriona]

Re: Zombie hordes?

 

On the bite...

With Uncontrolled and Continuous on there you really don't need 10 dice of Transform. That's overkill of the first water.

 

Look at it like its a disease that some of the players WILL catch. gorking around the build changes the way the symptoms play in game. This gives them up to six hours and then WhaMMO... 10d6 transform per phase 'till Zombiefied.

Whereas... drop the extra time, make it, say, 1d6 gradual effect 1 hour Uncontrolled Continuous. If a normal with 8 body catches it, they succumb in around 5-6 hours. A Super with 30 Body will take a whole lot longer to give in to the virus, but still under a day. A regenerator might be able to keep ahead of it indefinitely and stay sick but human. Without any way of reversing the transform, even small continuous attacks are scary stuff.

 

Rather than giving the Transform a reversal condition, you could go ahead and say it heals as normal. See.... with the attack uncontrolled, you don't have to really worry about anyone actually "naturally" healing faster than the attack repeats. What this does mean, tho is that it's not totally 100% fatal if there are people with Healing powers. Then they just need to figure out either how to turn off the uncontrolled attack (assuming you have conditions to disarm the attack, per the rules...might I suggest a full blood transfusion before the first damage interval is taken?) or how to crank up a really really big dispel.

 

If you're going for realism of sorts, I'd drop the raw damage on the bite way down. The bite radius of a human jaw isn't all that huge, so even if it's being snapped closed like a hydraulic cutting press there's only so much a set of teeth can grab, and so much pressure the teeth and jaw can handle themselves before splintering. Penetrating, AP or points of Resistant Piercing could all be appropriate. I seem to remember someone a while back suggesting the idea of adding Uncontrolled and Continuous to the Zombies' STR and HKA to represent the fact that once they get a grab or a bite on you they clamp on and keep grinding down, even if you cut off the part in question.

 

Just some thoughts for folk to play with. I've been pondering Zombie Hero for a while now...